Culture Shock - by Rachel Neer

I have always loved big cities. I remember playing outside in the sun in my backyard in the country when I was younger, but then I remember falling in love with the city. My first real experience in a large city that wasn’t Nashville or Vegas (don’t ask) was my 6th grade year when we went to Washington, D.C. I remember that there was something to do around every corner, and no one looked at you strangely…that was the way of the city. It grew on me, and to this day I will tell anyone who asks that I would much rather live in the city than the country.

This weekend was spent in what quickly became #2 on my list of favorite cities that I have visited (Seville, Spain is #1 by a long shot). Prague was where we visited, in the Czech Republic.

It took a while to get there, but if you have to spend the night in the airport then we learned that the one in Dublin is a good one to stay in. The six of us took turns sleeping. I ended up not sleeping at all; I just couldn’t. Everyone else got rest, though, and I slept on the plane the next morning. I spent hours trying to complete a Sudoku puzzle. I learned that Sudoku is just not my strong suit…the one puzzle that took Audrey, Tonya, and Caitlyn about 30 minutes (or less) individually to do took me what turned out to be about 8 hours. Don’t laugh; I tried.

The plane took off at 6:50 in the morning, hence the sleeping in the airport the night before. When we arrived in Prague, we bought bus tickets and went to the hostel, via bus and then subway. A nice hostel with warm bed sheets welcomed us, but we didn’t have time to bother with that. We went out to see the city…day 1 is always all about exploration.

The second day we left early in the morning to get to Terezin, which was something like a concentration camp during World War II. The buildings had been built with the idea of defense, but it was never used in the way that it was intended. When we visited, we saw the Jewish things that remained there. There were things that had been left and pictures that had been drawn from the Nazi Occupation in the 1960s. Just being in that place gave me a sense of despair. There were sights and smells that no one should ever have to endure. I can’t imagine living in such horrible conditions and then being moved to a concentration camp (which is where most of them went, if they didn’t die in Terezin or en route to the concentration camp) where conditions were even worse.

To be treated as if you were a common criminal would be horrible, especially if you weren’t one. It would be even worse to be treated that way simply because of your faith. The Star of David that the Jews had to wear was everywhere, even on the clothes in the display. It gives new meaning to the phrase “she wears her heart on her sleeve.” The sky was dreary, like it has been since we arrived, but it was a very different kind of dreary. This one brought an air of gloom and death to the entire place. I can’t imagine what it would be like to know someone who was there…but one of my friends did.

Heritage. History. Hope. Those are the feelings that we experience when we travel and do things like this. My family is Irish, German, and Dutch…and Amsterdam is one of the places that I can’t wait to visit because it’s in Holland and I have a beautiful picture of Holland in my mind.

While in Prague we went up into the tower on Charles Bridge and were able to see the city for quite a distance…it was pretty amazing to me. We crossed the bridge and found lunch, then went to the other side (where we started) and happened upon a street market. There were wooden toys, fruits, breads, ornaments, nativities, nesting dolls, and more at every booth. We went back on Saturday to look again. Thursday night, though, Caitlyn, Alicia, and I ended up in a café underground for dinner. It was nice, the food was good, and the room was warm. At the end of the day, that was really all that we were after. Friday night dinner was in a chain restaurant, and Saturday night Caitlyn and I found yet another underground restaurant to cater to our hungry stomachs.

We couldn’t go in the castle because there were elections on the week that we were there. It was exciting to be there in the midst of it all…elections in the States are a big deal, but the actual elections themselves aren’t for another several months. We went from the castle to the train station where we rode the vernacular railway to the top of a steep hill. On top there was an Eiffel Tower, built to model the one in Paris. This was built to help promote tourism on a worldwide scale. It made me laugh a little bit, because why go all the way to Paris when you can see a tower of your own right there? People went up and took pictures while I remained with both feet firmly planted on the ground.

From there we went to the mirror maze, which was more fun than anything. The mirrors gave the illusion that the room would go on forever. Of course it didn’t. It was fun to walk through, though, and then at the end there were funhouse mirrors that distorted everything about your image. I figure that could be either a really good thing or a really bad thing.

They talked to us before we left the States a lot about culture shock and how everything here was going to be different. I don’t think that is the kind of culture shock that they need to warn us about. I am used to English culture now. That is a part of my history, because I have spent so long here and will be here for a while yet. This weekend, however, I held three different currencies in my hand at once, and used four. The pounds went to the Street Car driver and the coffee shop in England. Euros were used for the meals and drinks in Dublin. In the Czech Republic they use the koruna, and I had that in my pocket as well. The hostel was paid for in dollars from my credit card. On the way to the airport and then back to school the car drove on one side of the road, but in Prague the buses and cars all drove on the side that is preferred by Americans.

There was a slight language barrier, but not much of one at all as most restaurants had menus in both Czech and English. The tour guides spoke at least two, but probably more, languages a piece. When we go places we don’t think of that, because we are raised to know English and English alone. So many people here know more than one language fluently. When we were at Terezin on Friday, English was neither the first nor the second language on the information boards. It was third, sometimes fourth and coming only above Russian or Chinese or another picture language that I can’t read or recognize when I see it.

That is the culture shock of it all…coming back to England, back to Harlaxton, where people don’t get arrested on airplanes and everyone knows some dialect of English. Back to Harlaxton where our beds and pillows are. Every time we leave it is like we are headed out on a family vacation. Whether you go with the school or not, you go somewhere almost every weekend. Not everyone has been there before. Some people may never go again. These people will get to see things that won’t be there for others, though. These things are the things that no picture could ever do justice.

Take our first flight, the one from Nottingham to Dublin, as an example. I’m not a huge fan of flying anyway and haven’t done it a whole lot in my life. When we landed in Dublin as if we had just fallen out of the sky, it’s because we did. There was no slow part to the landing at all. All of us left our seats and realized why it was that seatbelts were necessary during the flight. When we were at our gate, they detained one man before letting the rest of us off the plane. When we were all off, they roped off the plane and arrested the guy. I’ve never seen that happen before…ever. I guess there’s a first time for everything, though. I’m not entirely sure if that’s normal or not. I’m going with not.

Next weekend we are headed to Budapest, Hungary. We will spend Valentine’s Day in London at Luton airport so that we can catch an early flight the next day. We will go there keeping in mind the lessons that Caitlyn learned from this trip and asked me to share with you. I wrote them down on our last flight, before she took her inhaler but at the very end of the weekend:
1.) Don’t smoke on airplanes. It’s really, really illegal.
2.) Sneak your luggage in on RyanAir. Be friendly and smile – that’s the way to do it.
3.) Buy Post Office maps.
4.) Be prepared to pay commission if you’re getting money out on a credit card. Change pounds over. It’s cheaper.